


The Choice

by Jade_Dragoness



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Canon character deaths, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Magic-Users, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Trope Bingo Amnesty, Trope Bingo Round 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-07 02:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4246791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade_Dragoness/pseuds/Jade_Dragoness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of tech, magic rules the Federation of mortal realms. Vulcans' magic runs on logical rules. Humans' on intuition. Although according to Spock, Jim used mad intuition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Choice

**Author's Note:**

> Written for trope bingo prompt: Au - Fantasy

Jim swore under his breath, staring up the insanely large construct created by Khan. The black dragon roared, shaking the ground and the dimensional boundary wall. Jim could see Khan's arm move in an order. At once the dragon spat out a blast of red fire. 

“Shields!” Jim yelled, even as he threw his hand upwards. The gathered magic at his hands blasted upwards, following the mental design of a hexagonal half-dome in his mind to cover as many as his people as possible. 

His order was echoed by his officers and most of his spell-crew reacted at once. Light of various colors and shapes bloomed from the defense line guarding the dimensional wall. But as fast as their reflexes were, as good as they were with their magic, some of them were simply too slow. Or were too drained of magic. Or had chosen a spell that failed to complete.

Screams rang. The smell of burning flesh became choking. Jim forced himself to ignore it. Jim could hear Bones yelling in anger and directing his healers towards the wounded. Bright blue healing magic glowed brightly even under defense shields.

“Spock!” Jim called behind him. He risked glance over to where Spock was still chanting out the words for the Vulcan spell. Magic gathered around his second-in-command's wrists, building steadily but slowly. “Status!” he demanded. Jim wondered how much longer the defense construct would take to build. 

Khan's power was too strong. The defense line couldn't take many more hits. _And_ Jim's people were already tired after everything else which had happened today. And if the defense line fell, then the dimensional wall which protected the entry gate to the Human Realm would be breached by the one person who wanted to see it all burn.

Spock's construct was the only spell with enough power to meet the sorcerer head on.

“The construct is still building, captain,” Uhura said, her dark eyes evaluated Spock's work. Being one of the few humans who was fluent in Vulcan, and Vulcan ritual magic, Jim trusted her analysis. “He's on the final stage of the ritual but he still needs another five minutes.”

Chekhov and Sulu were pale from where they stood providing both protection and power to Spock. Sulu's spelled sword flashed in the sun, creating a golden dome of light over them. Chekhov was holding the magical circle, even as he mentally ran calculation on forces and energy and feeding both to Spock. 

Above them the framework for a large silver phoenix solidified, and sheaths of white glowing muscle started covering the silver bones. 

The construct was amazing. It was easily one of the most beautiful and powerful pieces of magic Jim had ever seen. Something that would have taken seven humans working together in complete harmony with perfect concentration to pull off, and Spock was doing it practically on his own. It certainly explained why Vulcan mages were always so damned powerful... but the ritual was still taking too long. 

Khan was simply too powerful. At the rate he was throwing attacks at them Khan would get past the boundary wall and into the Human Realms in less than a minute.

Not for the first time, Jim hoped that Marcus was suffering every imaginable torment in the afterlife that he had coming to him. What was he thinking raising a sorcerer from the Devastation Wars? No sane person would have _ever_ thought that was ever a good idea! And if his spell-crew failed to hold the wall then all the citizens of the Human Realms would suffer for Marcus' arrogance.

And as if that thought had led power to Khan's construct, the dragon winged up in the air and then plunged down. The wind howled around it as it folded its large wings. 

Jim's eyes widened as he realized what Khan was doing. “Brace for impact!” he yelled. 

The dragon hit the boundary wall with a loud boom that nearly blew Jim's eardrums, shattering the spell-cast stones as if they were noting more than ordinary granite.

Everyone was thrown off their feet. Yells bounded all over the defense line on the wall. Jim could see several of his spell-crew clutching at the edge, having nearly been blasted over the lip. At once others ran to pull them to safety. Jim didn't want to think of how many had failed to hold on and had been sucked into the Ether Paths. Without access to the dimensional gate of a realm they would be lost for all eternity.

The dragon roared again and flapped it's wings with thunderous force as it turned to face them. Under the force of the wings, Spock's construct swayed violently. But it soon steadied and began sprouting iridescent feathers.

“Offensive spells, now!” Jim shouted to his people, before the dragon could rain down fire again. And among the spell-crew the red clad battle-casters went on the offensive. Beams of red force, blasts of multicolored fire, and silver needles of energy were flung upwards. 

Even through the attack, Jim could see Khan on the dragon, ugly violet-black magic circling his head and hands. The attacking spells were deflected off his defensive shield, nothing got past him. Then his gathered magic turned into the tale-tell glittering of a teleportation spell and Khan vanished from sight. And Jim _knew_ , he just knew, with that intuition which fueled his wildest and most powerful magical spells, where Khan had gone. He was headed for Frisco, the City of the Golden Gate, to tear down its shinning towers.

And Khan had left the dragon behind to cover his back and kill Jim's people.

Unless, Jim did _something_ about it. 

He didn't hesitate. “Scotty, I need you!” Jim called. 

“Aye, captain?” Scotty called, jogging towards Jim.

“I need you to hold a circle for me,” Jim said grimly. 

Scotty frowned. “Aye, what are ye planning, captain?”

“Just hold the circle.” 

Still frowning, Scott nodded. He clapped his hands together, humming a snatch of song. He pulled his hands apart and circle glowed red between his hands. It widened and spun, it flew upwards and around Jim, until it hovered around his waist at a circumference of six feet. 

Above them the dragon roared again, and fire lashed down.

“Shields!”

Jim held his own shield up, even as he focused his power into his hands. For a split-second fear nearly overwhelmed Jim, but he forced it down. This was the only way so no more of his people would die. He closed his eyes and focused on pulling out every drop of magic in his reserves. Then Jim reached even deeper. Down inside where his life-force flowed. He gathered it all. Everything. 

Because the spell which his instincts told him was the only thing that could stop dragon, save his people and let Spock stop Khan in time, would take a sacrifice. 

A willing sacrifice. The most powerful magic that a mortal could use. 

“Jim... what are you doing?” Scotty whispered. 

Jim opened up his eyes and saw that he was glowing gold. The magic barely contained under his skin was burning up his body for additional energy.

He met Scotty's eyes. “Hold the circle for me, Scotty.”

In his mind's eye he created a spear. Simple, but unstoppable. The gathered magic swirled around him and coalesced, forming the weapon in Jim's right hand. It was massive, easily twice as long as Jim was tall with a shaft so thick his fingers couldn't even meet. For a split second he wondered how he would ever throw it, but the he realized he didn't need to. The magic knew its target and the reason for why it was created. 

Above the defense line the dragon's maw opened again. 

Jim pointed the spear at the dragon and simply let go.

The spear shot up, radiating blue-white power so bright it made everyone cry out and block their eyes. Jim fell on his ass, feeling his arms and legs go numb. Under him the stones of the boundary wall started to blacken and flake. 

The dragon didn't even have the chance to scream. It simply shattered. Turned back into energy, dispersing across the sky. 

“Ye did it!” Scotty cried out happily. 

Along the defense line the rest of Jim's spell-crew threw out cheers. And above them, the phoenix-construct cried out, a pure bell-like ringing sound. It was finally done.

Jim could feel his life fading away, burning away. 

“Captain... I'll get Mr. Spock,” Scotty whispered.

So Jim decided to hold on... just a bit longer. So he could talk to Spock, just one more time.

End

**Author's Note:**

> Umm... so clearly Jim doesn't stay dead since this is based off Into Darkness canon.


End file.
